Middlesbrough FC

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Boro hit out at appeal ruling

27 Feb 2008 - 07:46:57

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Middlesbrough chief executive Keith Lamb has launched a stinging attack on the Football Association's disciplinary commission after Jeremie Aliadiere was hit with an additional ban.

Boro had appealed referee Lee Mason's decision to hand the French striker a straight red card during Saturday's 3-2 defeat at Liverpool.

Aliadiere was dismissed in the closing stages of the Anfield encounter for slapping Javier Mascherano, after the Reds midfielder had grabbed the Boro player's face as the pair waited for a throw-in.

The 24-year-old picked up an automatic three-match ban for violent conduct, but that has now been increased to four games after the commission ruled that the Teessiders' appeal was "frivolous".

However, Lamb has hit out at the commission and called their decision "a travesty of justice".

"We are furious and totally astounded that the commission, without consultation, should consider our appeal to be frivolous," he blasted.

"Who are they to know our minds when we made this appeal?

"We are appalled at the decision and the entire process. How can nameless, faceless people on a commission decide that our genuine claim for equality and justice be dealt with in such a flippant manner?

"It is a disgraceful comment to suggest our claim was frivolous. We agonised over it before deciding to submit a claim for wrongful dismissal.

"The Oxford Dictionary definition of frivolous is 'not serious, shallow, silly or trifling', while in fact we spent more than two days considering whether or not to appeal the incident.

"It seems strange that only recently Chelsea's appeal against Michael Essien's three-match ban was rejected but not considered 'frivolous'.

"It appears that there is one rule for the big boys and another for the rest of us."